Page 30 - Rights beautiful : collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik

Rights Beautiful Collection of Professor Saneh Chamarik

true and ultimate purpose of the whole dialogue, which we could not
afford to lose sight of. This point just cannot be overemphasized. In view
of the current trends of global disorder and transnational threat to biological
resources and indigenous knowledge, the time has now come for a real
and urgent need for the common people’s direct action in order to protect
their own legitimate rights and liberties, and thereby rectifying the
existing imbalances in political and economic relationships. It is the question
of how social learning and action could possibly be made to proceed in
constructive and peaceful manner, with a view to setting out the path
towards a new social order based on freedom and justice at all levels of
human society. Presumably this is going to be a very hard and long, long
process that requires a high degree of tolerance, perseverance, and
wisdom. Nevertheless, it is the nature of things and common challenge
we all should have in mind.
Meanwhile, there is the other side of the coin, too. As one
western writer pertinently voices the call for an alternative global
economic order that is geared to the real needs of people and the Earth,
and which “must accept that the era of ‘the wealth of nations’ is past,
1
st
and treat the 21 century as a multi-level one-world economy.” The rationale
is none other than the neo-liberalism’s own built-in indulgence in over-
production and over-consumption for the sake of profit maximization,
ostensibly dubbed economic growth. This line of rethinking and articulating
is getting more and more hearings all over, East and West, as the time
goes by. That, mind you, should not too naively and conveniently be
construed as consolation and reason for rejoice. It is essentially to serve
as an objective understanding of the dynamics of life, and then to get
prepared and be ready for constructive changes. This is going to be
quite an enormous task for the oppressed and the oppressors alike.

1 st
James Robertson, Future Wealth: A New Economics for the 21 Century, London, Cassell
Publishers Limited, 1990, p. ix.
24 OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF THAILAND